Black Orchid (7 page)

By
the time his knock came, Adelaide had a plan in place for what steps she needed
to take. She opened the door and stepped outside onto the veranda. Nate had his
shirt back on. Adelaide quelled a small moment of disappointment, determined to
keep to the business at hand. He backed up a bit to give her some space. She
handed him one of the glasses of water she’d brought out with her, and then she
took a seat in one of the wicker chairs.

Nate
raised his eyebrows and moved to stand in front of her. He didn’t take a seat
but leaned back against the railing and crossed his ankles.

“You
said you’d been tracking him?” she asked.

He
nodded.

“Why?”

Nate
grimaced. “It’s a bit difficult to explain.”

“Did
someone assign you to follow him?” she asked.

Nate
shook his head. “No. Tracking’s something I learned young. I don’t do it much
anymore. But I happened to overhear that guy on the phone receiving his kill
orders.” He pinned her with a curious glance. “For you, apparently.” He
shrugged. “I put those old skills to use and followed him.”

Adelaide
narrowed her eyes. She stretched out with her telepathy, trying to remember
everything Ellie had worked on with her. Her ability to hear someone’s thoughts
on purpose was still glitchy at best.

“…
not going to hurt her … just didn’t like the look of that guy or his orders …
don’t worry …”

Adelaide
relaxed infinitesimally. Hearing those thoughts helped. But what was more
compelling was the lack of a hive mind present. From what she understood,
Maddox’s forces were all wolf morphers like the Vyusher. Like the greasy dead
kid. While she’d been at the castle, Adelaide had discovered what the wolves
sounded like telepathically, and she couldn’t feel anything like that with this
guy. So he couldn’t be with Maddox. That didn’t make him safe exactly, but at
least it made him not an obvious enemy.

More
than that, she wasn’t shaking. Fear should’ve had her on the verge of shifting
again by now. But she was fine. She’d have to figure out what that meant later.
But for now, she didn’t feel as if this man were an immediate threat.

Adelaide
took in his appearance. He had sandy blond hair and brown eyes. The lines
around his eyes indicated that he was someone who laughed a lot. Adelaide sort
of liked that idea. He wore strange- looking clothes that she wasn’t familiar
with. And he obviously hadn’t showered in a long time.

The
stranger quirked his lips. Or at least she thought he did. It was hard to tell
through the beard. What was his name again? Nate? Well, whatever. He looked
more like a shaggy dog than a serial killer.

She
clamped her own lips together to keep them from twitching. And then she
frowned.
My first moment of honest humor since I woke up in the castle and
it’s with a random would-be knight in shining armor. Or really smart killer.
The urge to giggle struck again, which seemed really inappropriate given the
situation.
Maybe I’m just cracking up and losing my mind completely.

She
pulled her mind back to questioning him. “Seems like an awfully big coincidence
that you just happened to overhear him,” she said. “What were you doing this
far into the Outback?”

“I
wasn’t when I came across him. That was in Darwin. I followed him here.”

Adelaide
frowned. She wasn’t entirely sure where she was in relation to Darwin. But she
was positive it was quite a distance. “How’d you get here?”

“He
came in a Ute. It’s parked about ten miles that way.” He jerked a thumb over
his shoulder off to her left. “I followed on foot.”

Adelaide
stiffened. “On… foot?”

He
smiled at the skepticism in her voice. Adelaide noticed that the friendliness
of his smile didn’t quite reach his eyes. Although she wasn’t sure how she
could tell through the scruff.

Huh.
So the smile is more for me than for him. Interesting.

 “Originally,
I came to the Outback because I’m a bit of a loner.”

She
frowned. “Why a loner?”

“Ah.
There’s two parts to that. First is that I try to stay away from humans so that
I don’t frighten them. My power is super strength and speed, and I find it
difficult to control sometimes.”

Adelaide’s
frown didn’t change. “Uh-huh,” she said with a dubious look. “And your other
reason?”

Nate
grimaced. “You may or may not know that there’s a bit of a war going on at the
moment among our kind of people. I’m not into all that political stuff. So for
now, I’m staying well out of it. Easiest way is to be on my own out where no
one roams.”

*****

Nate
held his breath as she stared at him intently. He kept his thoughts focused on
what he’d just said. Before her memory issues, Adelaide was supposed to have
been a decent telepath. So he used the techniques Maddox’s telepath had
practiced with him to block anything she might be trying. Not guaranteed to
work, but a risk worth taking.

“And
yet you tracked this guy down. That seems to be pretty much in the middle of
it.”

Nate
had been expecting this reaction. Keeping his thoughts focused he said, “I
don’t like bullies.”

She
raised her eyebrows, clearly unimpressed. “You have no idea who I am. He could
be saving the planet from a terrible monster.” Then she bit her lip, as if
she’d said too much and wanted to eat those words.

“That’s
why I waited to step in. He watched you for quite a while. And I watched you
both. But you tried to warn him. You didn’t
want
to hurt him. That was
all I needed to know to decide who was good and bad in that situation.”

Adelaide
crossed her arms over her chest and regarded him for quite some time before she
finally nodded. “All right, I believe you.”

Nate
let out a small breath of relief. The hardest part was done.

In
like Flynn,
he thought to himself with a small feeling of satisfaction. This first meeting
couldn’t be going better.

“Is
that
all
you can do?” she asked suddenly. “The strength and speed bit?”

Was
that teasing in her voice? Hard to tell since she was looking down.

“Isn’t
that enough?”

She
shrugged. “Of course. Just making sure.”

Her
question made sense given that Adelaide possessed many different abilities and
so did most of her family. Didn’t she realize how unusual that was? And how
perilous? No one should be allowed that much power. Nate’s heart gave a small
jump as he caught the train of his thoughts. He gave her a worried glance. Had
she heard him? He couldn’t tell.

Don’t
blow this, dude,
he chastised himself.

Then
he put his full concentration back on the girl in front of him. He took another
step closer, but this time she held her ground.
You’re mine.

He
needed to remember that while she was beautiful, and seemingly shy and sweet,
she was also possibly one of the most lethal people on the planet. She and her
sisters Lila, Ellie, and Selene. And she had stolen years of his life, making
him live something that wasn’t real.

And
for that she would pay.

But
not before Maddox completed his own plans for her.

Adelaide
had no idea what she should do. She didn’t know this man from Adam, or Eve, for
that matter. Not that she’d recognize most anyone at the moment.
Stranger
danger
was screaming inside her head.

But
at the same time, he’d saved her life and then had managed to calm her down.
That’d been the closest she’d ever come to releasing the monster inside her,
and he’d stopped it. And without using any special powers. It could be handy to
keep him around, especially while she was trying to learn to control her own
abilities.

Initially,
while she’d been waiting for him to bury her would-be killer, Adelaide had
thought that her time here had just come to an end too soon. No way would her
family let her stay here with assassins coming for her. But she couldn’t go
back home. She was still just as much a threat to her family, despite any
danger she might be in at the moment. And she’d rather sacrifice herself than
them.

But
with Nate here…

No.
That was a crazy idea. Still, she had no idea whom to trust these days. She’d
tried to poke around in Nate’s mind with her telepathy, but she was still having
some trouble. Unless it was a really loud thought or it was directed at her,
she couldn’t hear it.

Seriously.
Really
dumb idea.

She
crossed her arms. “Well, I thank you for saving my life, and I guess it was
nice to meet you. But I think maybe you should be on your way.”

Adelaide
stood to walk into the house. Nate reached out and snagged her arm. She jerked
out of his grasp and skittered back a few steps, her heart hammering.

Nate
held up his hands and didn’t come closer. But he didn’t give up either. “Uh-uh,
Princess. I answered all your questions. Now you tell me what that was about
earlier.”

Adelaide’s
chin took on a stubborn tilt. “My house, my land, my rules.”

Nate
stepped closer. She glared at him but didn’t retreat again, even as she vaguely
wondered what he’d do with her if he caught her. As fast as he could move,
she’d never get away anyway, so no use trying.

“Sweetheart,
I’m not leaving until I know what’s going on here.”

Adelaide
licked her lips. “Why?” she demanded. “You’re staying out of the war. You did
your good deed. What do you care about me?”

And
why did she suddenly feel a small spark of hope that this total stranger, no
matter how good-looking under all that scruff, would say that he did care about
her?

Nate
gave her a lopsided grin, and her stomach dipped in response. “Let’s just say I
have an overdeveloped damsel-in-distress calling. And you clearly fall into
that category.”

Adelaide
folded her arms across her chest as she held back her ridiculous disappointment
that his was apparently just a general concern. “What makes you say that?”

Nate
actually laughed aloud. “Seriously?” He pointed at the spot where he’d buried
the guy. “
He
might not be the only one coming for you. Besides, no way
am I leaving you alone if you might go nuclear at any moment.”

“I’ll
deal with any potential future assassins. I promise I’m far from helpless. And I’m
not sure what you mean by nuclear, but I’m not going there. So you’re off the
hook.” She watched him closely, waiting for the shrug of indifference, waiting
for him to leave.

But
he didn’t do either. Instead, he took a step closer. “You don’t want to talk
about it to a total stranger? Okay. I get that. But let me ask you this. Was
today the worst it’s been? Whatever had you shaking on the ground?”

She
hesitated. “Yes. Facing death apparently makes it kick in hard.”

“And
having me there helped?”

Adelaide
chewed on her lower lip and thought about how wise it would be to let him know
that he had any power over her whatsoever. But he already seemed to know.

“Yes.
You helped.”

“Has
it been getting worse?” He took a small step closer. Clearly, he was trying to not
spook her.

“Only
when someone shows up in the middle of nowhere and tries to kill me.”

Nate
chuckled, and the sound made her want to smile. Another step nearer. “What if
I
could help you?”

“I
told you. I can handle any more people who come along. And as for the other, as
long as I’m not upset, I’m fine.”

“Still,
I make a good defensive system. And what if I helped you learn to control…
errr… whatever it is you can’t control?”

Adelaide
shook her head. “It’s not possible. There’s only one person who could help with
that, and she won’t—”

“Won’t
what?” Another step, crowding into her space. She could see the faint ring of
gold around the pupil of his eye, making the deep brown seem even deeper.

Adelaide
just shook her head.

But
Nate’s offer did align with her earlier thoughts. He
could
protect her.
Buy her more time out here. And maybe with him there to help her if she got out
of control, she could practice her other skills. She suspected her terror of
unleashing the beast inside was what was holding her back from getting a good
handle on her other gifts.

But
how could she really trust him? She didn’t even know him.

And
then a thought struck.
If he does anything threatening, the dragon will come
out no matter how good his arms feel around me. That kid had it on the verge. So
really, I’m pretty safe.

Making
up her mind, she tipped her chin up and laid it out for him. “Okay… I’ve lost
most of my memory and with it any control over my powers. I could use your… er…
help as I practice them.”

Nate
nodded slowly, though she could see his curiosity. “Help how?”

Adelaide
looked at the sun lowering in the sky and realized they’d been out here talking
for a while. “Let’s go inside, eat something, and I’ll tell you what I can.
Then you can decide.”

“All
right.”

Slightly
relieved to escape his nearness – and he had gotten close – Adelaide went and
grabbed the glasses of water she’d brought out earlier. Then she turned and
walked back to the house, conscious of Nate beside her every step of the way.
He followed her inside quietly and then sat at the small table in the kitchen
and watched as she started to get them more to drink. She’d get food after they
were done talking. Adelaide appreciated the time it gave her to think over what
and how much to tell him. But she could feel his gaze following her around the
small space every second. And she could feel the warm blush that moved up over
her neck and face in response.

Finally
she sat down across from him and put the glasses in front of both of them.
Adelaide took a sip of water and debated where to start.

“You
said I could help. How?” he finally asked.

Adelaide
blew out a breath. “Basically… exactly what you did today. If I start shaking
like that, help me calm down, get back in control.”

“And
protect you from killers,” he added with a grin.

Adelaide
rolled her eyes.

“What
happens if I can’t help you gain control?”

Adelaide
glanced away. “You don’t want to know,” she muttered. She looked back and
shrugged apologetically. “And I can’t really tell you. Let’s just say it’s
pretty bad, and you’d better hope you’re as fast as you say you are, because
there’s nowhere you could hide that would save you from what I am.”

Adelaide
relaxed a tad when the warning in her words, the message that she wasn’t
exactly defenseless, seemed to register. He tipped his chair so that it
balanced on the back legs and he raised his eyebrows.

“You
said powers earlier. More than one?”

Adelaide
took another sip of her drink. “I am a falcon metamorph, so I’d like to work on
that. And also on my telepathy.”

Nate’s
dropped his chair back to all fours with a thump. “The falcon I’m good with but
not the telepathy.”

Warning
bells went off in Adelaide’s mind. She swirled the water in her cup. “Why? Do
you have something to hide?”

“I’ve
tangled with telepaths, and I don’t like anyone digging around in my head or messing
with my emotions.”

Adelaide
sat back and shivered at the sudden anger behind his words, the look he leveled
on her. Almost as if he blamed
her
. She couldn’t really fault him if
he’d had issues before. She’d found that having four other telepaths around –
Lila, Ellie, Griffin,
and
Selene – meant that none of her thoughts were
all that private. Annoying to say the least and sometimes downright invasive.

“Okay.
No telepathy with you.”

Nate
looked around and lifted his hand to stage whisper, “I hate to tell you this,
sweetness, but there’s no one else here at the moment.”

“Are
you sure about that?” she whispered back. She almost smiled at his frown of
uncertainty. “Actually, my family comes here every few days to check in and
drop off supplies,” she continued. “And they can’t know you’re here.”

Heavens,
they’d go ballistic if they had any idea what she was thinking of doing. But
Adelaide was here to take charge of her life, and Nate could help her do that.
She was sure of it.

“You
can’t stay in the house other than to sleep, which you can do on the couch
there.” She nodded toward the sitting room. “And when you get a mental flash
from me to hide, the only telepathy I’ll use with you, make yourself scarce
immediately. Got it?”

Nate
leaned back and clasped his hands behind his head, seemingly casually, but she
could see the tautness in his shoulders

“So
let me get this straight. You’d like me to stay here to help calm you down when
you start to shake and run far and fast if you really lose it. Disappear when
your family shows up. Sleep on that tiny couch. Stay outside all day. And trust
that, other than warnings about your family, you won’t turn that creepy telepathic
gift my way. That about right?”

Adelaide
winced as she stood up and took her glass to the sink. “Yes.” Turning, she
leaned against the counter and pointed at herself. “Damsel in distress here,
remember? And you offered.”

Nate
tipped his head and then gave her a megawatt grin with enough charm in it to
make her knees knock. Though, like before, she noticed it didn’t quite reach
his eyes. “Have fun stormin’ the castle,” Nate muttered to himself.

“What?”

“It’s
a quote. From
The Princess Bride
,” he said.

At
Adelaide’s look of blank incomprehension he tacked on, “It’s a movie from the 1980s.”

“I
don’t have memories from that time period,” she said, as she turned back to the
sink.

“Huh.
Never mind. All right, Princess. You’ve got yourself a man.”

She
looked over her shoulder to gauge his sincerity. And hope blossomed in her
heart for the first time in ages.

“My
name isn’t Princess, or sweetheart, or sweetness. It’s Adelaide.” She sniffed.
“And, while I’m setting some rules around here, you need to bathe. And shave.”

Nate
shrugged. “Point me to the bathroom.
Adelaide
.”

She
did.

“I’ll
just go get my pack. It’s outside.” And he left the house.

It
already felt emptier with him out of it. Adelaide sighed and wondered if she
would regret this impetuous decision. Probably. She ran her hands through her
hair, surprised for the umpteenth time at how short it was now. She wasn’t sure
when she’d cut it.

“What
are you doing?” she muttered to herself. But no obvious answer was going to
come.

Adelaide
caught a flash, and she quickly turned a suspicious eye toward the stairway. With
another sigh, she ran a hand around the back of her neck. Was she caught already?

Closing
her eyes to help herself concentrate, she shot Nate a thought.
“Don’t come
in yet. I’ve got company sooner than expected.”

She
hoped he got the message.